scholarly journals Experimental Study on Flexible Deformation of a Flapping Wing with a Rectangular Planform

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Wenqing Yang ◽  
Jianlin Xuan ◽  
Bifeng Song

A flexible flapping wing with a rectangular planform was designed to investigate the influence of flexible deformation. This planform is more convenient and easier to define and analyzed its deforming properties in the direction of spanwise and chordwise. The flapping wings were created from carbon fiber skeleton and polyester membrane with similar size to medium birds. Their flexibility of deformations was tested using a pair of high-speed cameras, and the 3D deformations were reconstructed using the digital image correlation technology. To obtain the relationship between the flexible deformation and aerodynamic forces, a force/torque sensor with 6 components was used to test the corresponding aerodynamic forces. Experimental results indicated that the flexible deformations demonstrate apparent cyclic features, in accordance with the flapping cyclic movements. The deformations in spanwise and chordwise are coupled together; a change of chordwise rib stiffness can cause more change in spanwise deformation. A certain lag in phase was observed between the deformation and the flapping movements. This was because the deformation was caused by both the aerodynamic force and the inertial force. The stiffness had a significant effect on the deformation, which in turn, affected the aerodynamic and power characteristics. In the scope of this study, the wing with medium stiffness consumed the least power. The purpose of this research is to explore some fundamental characteristics, as well as the experimental setup is described in detail, which is helpful to understand the basic aerodynamic characteristics of flapping wings. The results of this study can provide an inspiration to further understand and design flapping-wing micro air vehicles with better performance.

Author(s):  
Jong-Seob Han ◽  
Jae-Hung Han

In this paper, aerodynamic characteristics of two flapping wings in clap-and-fling motion at Re of ∼104, which corresponds to the flight regime of flapping-wing micro air vehicles, was investigated. The test employing dynamically scaled-up robotic arms installed on a water tank revealed that the wingbeat motion at such high Re in1duced the fully developed wake within two wingbeat cycles. This wake widely influenced the lift production covering the entire wingbeat period; the wings earned the additional lift during the entire downstroke, and lost the lift during the upstroke. Chordwise cross-sectional DPIV showed the massive downwash with enlarged tip vortices, when the wake was fully developed. The wake blew down the headwind and reduced the effective angles of attack. In the case of the clap-and-fling motion, the wake was leaned toward the dorsal part, in which the wings created the clap-and-fling motion, causing the global fluctuation of the aerodynamic force production.


Author(s):  
Hao Jing ◽  
Qing Zhang ◽  
Ruijun Zhang ◽  
Qin He

The high-speed airflow generated by ultra-high-speed elevators causes significant aerodynamic force, which seriously reduces the comfort and safety of passengers. First, a multi-parameter general model of ultra-high-speed elevator was established, and the three-dimensional numerical simulation of incompressible flow in the ultra-high-speed elevator was simulated. The correctness of the model and method was verified by experiments and grid-independence analyses. On this basis, the variation in the aerodynamic forces and the pressure in the hoistway was analyzed. Finally, the influence of different hoistway structures and parameters of ventilation holes on the aerodynamic forces and hoistway pressure were analyzed. The results showed that the opening of ventilation holes significantly reduced the aerodynamic forces and hoistway pressure for most of the period of the car’s operation period, but both the aerodynamic forces and hoistway pressure showed a sudden increase–decrease process. The aerodynamic forces and hoistway pressure were highly sensitive to changes in the hoistway blockage ratio, the cross-sectional area of the ventilation hole, and the position of the ventilation hole. When a pair of ventilation holes were opened, those in the middle of the hoistway reduced aerodynamic problems in the hoistway to the greatest extent. The increase in the connection angle between the ventilation hole and the hoistway eliminated the low-speed recirculation zone at the ventilation hole and increased the total volume of exhaust air at the ventilation hole.


Author(s):  
Dilong Guo ◽  
Wen Liu ◽  
Junhao Song ◽  
Ye Zhang ◽  
Guowei Yang

The aerodynamic force acting on the pantograph by the airflow is obviously unsteady and has a certain vibration frequency and amplitude, while the high-speed train passes through the tunnel. In addition to the unsteady behavior in the open-air operation, the compressive and expansion waves in the tunnel will be generated due to the influence of the blocking ratio. The propagation of the compression and expansion waves in the tunnel will affect the pantograph pressure distribution and cause the pantograph stress state to change significantly, which affects the current characteristics of the pantograph. In this paper, the aerodynamic force of the pantograph is studied with the method of the IDDES combined with overset grid technique when high speed train passes through the tunnel. The results show that the aerodynamic force of the pantograph is subjected to violent oscillations when the pantograph passes through the tunnel, especially at the entrance of the tunnel, the exit of the tunnel and the expansion wave passing through the pantograph. The changes of the pantograph aerodynamic force can reach a maximum amplitude of 106%. When high-speed trains pass through tunnels at different speeds, the aerodynamic coefficients of the pantographs are roughly the same.


2013 ◽  
Vol 300-301 ◽  
pp. 62-67
Author(s):  
Kun Ye ◽  
Ren Xian Li

Cutting is an effective device to reduce crosswind loads acting on trains. The cutting depth, width and gradient of slope are important factors for design and construction of cutting. Based on numerical analysis methods of three-dimensional viscous incompressible aerodynamics equations, aerodynamic side forces and yawing moments acting on the high-speed train, with different depths and widths of cutting,are calculated and analyzed under crosswinds,meanwhile the relationship of the gradient of cutting slope and transverse aerodynamic forces acting on trains are also studied. Simulation results show that aerodynamic side forces and yawing moments acting on the train(the first, middle and rear train)decrease with the increase of cutting depth. The relationship between transverse forces (moments) coefficients acting on the three sections and the cutting depth basically is the three cubed relation. The bigger is cutting width,the worse is running stability of train. The relationship between yawing moments coefficients acting each body of the train and the cutting width approximately is the three cubed relation. The transverse Aerodynamic forces decreased gradually with the increase of the gradient of cutting slope, the relationship between yawing moments coefficients acting each body of the train and the gradient of cutting slope basically is the four cubed relation.


Complexity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
He-xuan Hu ◽  
Wan-xin Lei ◽  
Ye Zhang

With the world development of high-speed railways and increasing speeds, aerodynamic forces and moments acting on trains have been increased further, making trains stay at a “floated” state. Under a strong crosswind, the aerodynamic performance of a train on the embankment is greatly deteriorated; lift force and horizontal force borne by trains will be increased quickly; trains may suffer derailing or overturning more easily compared with the flat ground; train derailing will take place when the case is serious. All of these phenomena have brought risks to people’s life and properties. Hence, the paper establishes an aerodynamic model about a high-speed train passing an air barrier, computes aerodynamic forces and moments, and analyzes pulsating pressures on the train surface as well as those of unsteady flow fields around the train. Computational results indicate that when the train passed the embankment air barrier, the head wave of air pressure full wave is more than the tail wave; the absolute value of negative wave is more than that of the positive wave, which is more obvious in the head train. When the train is passing the air barrier, pressure pulsation values at head train points are more than those at other points, while pressure changes most violently at the train bottom, and pressure values close to the air barrier are more than those points far from the air barrier. Pressure values at the cross section 1 were larger than those of other points. Pressure values at measurement points of the tail train ranked the second place, with the maximum negative pressure of 1253 Pa. Pressure change amplitudes and maximum negative pressure on the train surface are increased quickly, while pressure peak values on the high-speed train surface are in direct ratio to the running speed. With the increased speed of the high-speed train, when it is running in the embankment air barrier, the aerodynamic force and moment borne by each train body are increased sharply, while the head train suffers the most obvious influences of aerodynamic effects.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (87) ◽  
pp. 20130572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung-Kang Chen ◽  
Chen-Pan Liao ◽  
Feng-Yueh Tsai ◽  
Kai-Jung Chi

Salticids are diurnal hunters known for acute vision, remarkable predatory strategies and jumping ability. Like other jumpers, they strive for stability and smooth landings. Instead of using inertia from swinging appendages or aerodynamic forces by flapping wings as in other organisms, we show that salticids use a different mechanism for in-air stability by using dragline silk, which was previously believed to function solely as a safety line. Analyses from high-speed images of jumps by the salticid Hasarius adansoni demonstrate that despite being subject to rearward pitch at take-off, spiders with dragline silk can change body orientation in the air. Instantaneous drag and silk forces calculated from kinematic data further suggest a comparable contribution to deceleration and energy dissipation, and reveal that adjustments by the spider to the silk force can reverse its body pitch for a predictable and optimal landing. Without silk, upright-landing spiders would slip or even tumble, deferring completion of landing. Thus, for salticids, dragline silk is critical for dynamic stability and prey-capture efficiency. The dynamic functioning of dragline silk revealed in this study can advance the understanding of silk's physiological control over material properties and its significance to spider ecology and evolution, and also provide inspiration for future manoeuvrable robot designs.


Author(s):  
Yeongbin Lee ◽  
Minho Kwak ◽  
Kyu Hong Kim ◽  
Dong-Ho Lee

In this study, the aerodynamic characteristics of pantograph system according to the pantograph cover configurations for high speed train were investigated by wind tunnel test. Wind tunnel tests were conducted in the velocity range of 20∼70m/s with scaled experimental pantograph models. The experimental models were 1/4 scaled simplified pantograph system which consists of a double upper arm and a single lower arm with a square cylinder shaped panhead. The experimental model of the pantograph cover is also 1/4 scaled and were made as 4 different configurations. It is laid on the ground plate which modeled on the real roof shape of the Korean high speed train. Using a load cell, the aerodynamic force such as a lift and a drag which were acting on pantograph system were measured and the aerodynamic effects according to the various configurations of pantograph covers were investigated. In addition, the total pressure distributions of the wake regions behind the panhead of the pantograph system were measured to investigate the variations of flow pattern. From the experimental test results, we checked that the flow patterns and the aerodynamic characteristics around the pantograph systems are varied as the pantograph cover configurations. In addition, it is also found that pantograph cover induced to decrease the aerodynamic drag and lift forces. Finally, we proposed the aerodynamic improvement of pantograph cover and pantograph system for high speed train.


eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben J Hightower ◽  
Patrick W A Wijnings ◽  
Rick Scholte ◽  
Rivers Ingersoll ◽  
Diana D Chin ◽  
...  

How hummingbirds hum is not fully understood, but its biophysical origin is encoded in the acoustic nearfield. Hence, we studied six freely hovering Anna's hummingbirds, performing acoustic nearfield holography using a 2176 microphone array in vivo, while also directly measuring the 3D aerodynamic forces using a new aerodynamic force platform. We corroborate the acoustic measurements by developing an idealized acoustic model that integrates the aerodynamic forces with wing kinematics, which shows how the timbre of the hummingbird's hum arises from the oscillating lift and drag forces on each wing. Comparing birds and insects, we find that the characteristic humming timbre and radiated power of their flapping wings originates from the higher harmonics in the aerodynamic forces that support their bodyweight. Our model analysis across insects and birds shows that allometric deviation makes larger birds quieter and elongated flies louder, while also clarifying complex bioacoustic behavior.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
YeongGyun Ryu

An experimental study on flapping wing flexibility in hovering flight has been conducted to investigate the wing flexibility for insect-inspired flapping Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). Hawkmoth-like wing models, derived from Manduca sexta, were made of Polycarbonate (PC) sheet with a spanwise length of 200 mm and an aspect ratio of 6.18. For the distributions of wing flexibility, the wing thickness was selected as the design variable: rigid wing (3 mm-thick) and flexible wings (2, 1, 0.8, 0.5, 0.35, 0.2, and 0.1 mm-thick). In the experiment, the wing models were constrained to the symmetrical and sinusoidal flapping motions with sweeping and rotating amplitudes of 120° and 90° in water tank with size of 3.5 m×1.0 m×1.1 m. Aerodynamic force and flow structures for flapping the wing were measured using a six-axis force/torque sensor and a high speed camera with a laser using Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV). To compare the flow structures of flexible wings with rigid wing, they were captured at the same chordwise cross-section as the rigid wing, 50% of wing length. Based on the experimental results, vortices and aerodynamic force. Consequently, the wing with thickness of 0.8 mm has better aerodynamic characteristics than other wings in hovering flight. This finding will be instrumental in identifying the range of wing flexibilities that improves the aerodynamic efficiency for the development of insect-inspired flapping MAVs.


2013 ◽  
Vol 774-776 ◽  
pp. 241-247
Author(s):  
Y. Han ◽  
S. Q. Shu ◽  
D. Tan

The aerodynamic force coefficients of road vehicles under wind loads depend on not only the shapes of vehicles but also those of infrastructures, such as a bridge. Therefore, study of the aerodynamic characteristics of road vehicles considering the interaction of aerodynamic forces between the road vehicles and bridge is necessary for predicting the performance of vehicle under wind loads properly. This paper studies aerodynamic characteristics of road vehicles when vehicles run on bridges under cross winds using the CFD method. The dependence of aerodynamic forces on vehicle speeds, the interaction of aerodynamic forces between the vehicles and bridges and the influence of the turbulence are investigated by different simulation cases.


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